


Lineage

by greygerbil



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Mpreg, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 13:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14833587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: As Noctis and Gladio find a book listing the names of their ancestors in the old Citadel library, they start talking about their own future and Noctis wonders what else destiny has in store for his family - and if they should keep the crown at all.





	Lineage

**Author's Note:**

> This is a post-time skip, All Bros Live AU.
> 
> For Gladio Fluff Week, Day 7: Books

“It’s a miracle this survived.”

Gladio ran his fingertips along the rows of old books. Some were leather-bound, others just parchments held together by cords and string, and all of them used to be worth quite a bit of money, back when that still mean anything, before civilisation had collapsed. Noctis remembered that his father had been quite proud of the collection – not for its material value, but for the knowledge stored away here and the rarity of some of the works. They had all been dust collectors to Noctis as a child, but he understood now, like he understood many things his father had said then. Looking at the books made him painfully aware that he would never get to tell his father any of that. Sometimes, even after a decade, it still felt like the thought of his death was only just settling in.

“If the entrance hadn’t collapsed, it probably wouldn’t have made it,” Noctis said. Other parts of the Citadel around it hadn’t been as lucky as the library.

Noctis watched with a smile as Gladio pondered the old tomes. Though Noctis had preferred video games to books in his younger days, he remembered Gladio had always loved the place and spent countless afternoons with his head buried in old battle recollections, historical accounts and, when he thought no one was looking, fairy tales and heroic romances. He still was enchanted now, and Noctis, in turn, mesmerised by him. Gods, he had grown so handsome while Noctis was away. Not that he hadn’t always been, but Noctis still couldn’t get enough of the sight of him with his long, even hair and the way the Kingsglaive uniform sat on his broad shoulders. Even the new scars lurking under the fabric were beautiful to Noctis, marks of resilience and bravery.

Gladio pulled a book from the shelf

“Good thing, too. There’s lots of stuff in here that you couldn’t have gotten again from anywhere else.”

Noctis glanced at the tome that Gladio placed on a dusty table. It was the Lineage of the Noble Line Lucis Caelum. Gladio opened it on the last pages, but they were empty. Leafing back until he found writing, he reached Regis and Noctis on opposing pages, names and birth dates set down in black ink. No one had had time to write in the date of his father’s death yet, but Noctis didn’t want to dwell on that thought.

“Any word of Ardyn in there?” he asked instead.

“What’s your guess?”

Gladio opened the book at the front. According to the work, an only child was the progenitor of the line. Noctis measured the amount of paper between the first page and the one where Gladio’s finger was still holding the book half-open.

“It’s been a long way from him to me,” he said, thoughtfully.

“But you beat him. Now you have to fill the other pages.”

Noctis ran his eyes over the very first page again. There was a small name in the margins, a few inches away from that of the queen: Erucius Amicitia. The first Shield. Noctis ran his eyes over the name, then gently pushed his hand next to Gladio’s to open the last page again. No one had put down Gladio’s name next to Noctis’, either. He hadn’t been a king then.

“Good thing you’re not in there yet, otherwise we’d have to write over it to try and make your name look as big as those of the other royal spouses,” Noctis said with a small smile. “Besides, it’d be weirdly off to the side.”

Gladio grinned.

“Yeah, but how are we going to keep the Shield tradition going if we mash our families together? We’ll need two kids, at least. One for the throne, one to keep them there.”

A marriage to a man might have spelled the end of the bloodline for anyone other than the king of Lucis, but magic had given them more than just another weapon. Long before Noctis’ time, and no doubt memorialised somewhere in the pages of this book, there had been a queen who chose a noblewoman from Altissia as her consort and then developed her magic for years and years in a desperate bid to stay with the one she loved without breaking her duty to continue the bloodline, and stave off a succession war in what had been trying political times. The spells she had created had been added to the family arsenal, should such a situation arise again. His ancestors had settled Noctis with many a burden, but in this case, he had to give his deepest gratitude. He wondered if he could find more about her life in this library. Like so many great secrets taught to him, the fruits of her labour had seemed abstractly useful to him only when he was a child. Now, his happiness depended on them.

“I have wanted to say… You don’t have to carry the children, Gladio. I know what I’m doing and the Crystal charged me with more magic than I could need.”

“Oh no, fuck that. No one is using experimental spells on the king. I’m sure that queen was a great sorcerer, but I’m not your Shield for nothing,” Gladio said, resolutely.

Noctis smiled. Ever protective, his Shield, but he guessed that was how it was supposed to be. He turned the page, staring at the blank, slightly yellowed parchment.

“You know, sometimes I wonder if it weren’t best if I really were the last king of my family, like the gods wanted. All in all, my blood has drawn a lot of trouble down on this world, too.”

It was a doubt that he had harboured in his heart for a while. As a young man, the future rule of him and his children had seemed like a natural given, but ten years were a long time to think, and Ardyn’s words had never quite left him. He still could not say how much truth he had learned, at that. Somehow, he trusted neither the gods nor Ardyn to give him the full story. The Crystal for its part had shown him only hazy glimpses for its own or maybe no purpose, capricious as it had proven to be. Now he would never know all the details of the past that had shaped the path Noctis had walked.

Gladio shut the book on Noctis’ hand.

“The gods haven’t made the greatest impression on me, to be honest,” he said when Noctis looked up at him with a questioning glance. “Forget about them. Forget about being a king. Do you want a family with me?”

Noctis didn’t have to think long on that.

“Of course I do.”

“So we’ll have a family, and we’ll make sure to raise our kids into decent people. That’s all we really can do. Maybe it’s what the Crystal wanted and that’s why you’re here, or maybe it’s just that you’re too gods-damned stubborn to go along with destiny. I don’t think it matters. The way I see it,” he hesitated a brief, almost imperceptible moment, “you aren’t even supposed to be alive, so all bets are off. Let’s make the most of it.”

Smiling slightly, Noctis turned towards his Shield.

“You have grown quite wise, Gladio.”

“Nah.” Gladio smiled slightly. “I just had a lot of time to hope you’d come back to me and stay. Had to think of something to keep me going through the night.”

There was a strange look in Gladio’s eyes, vulnerable and joyful at once. Noctis placed a gentle hand on his hip, filled with affection for his lover, his future husband.

“Of course, I was thinking adopted children, but the prince always gets something special,” Gladio said, teasing returning to his voice. “That was quite the thing to spring on me.”

Noctis had to chuckle.

“You tried so hard to keep them all from spoiling me, but now you suffer the results. Of course, you were the worst.”

“How’s that?”

“Having you stick by me as a matter of course is one of the greatest gifts bestowed onto me as birthright,” Noctis said gently. “How could I not be spoiled?”

Gladio huffed a laugh.

“You’re going to make me blush, your Highness.”

Noctis took his hand.

“Let’s go back to our chambers and I’ll try my hardest.”

As they left the library through the shattered front door, Noctis was carrying the book. He didn’t know what the gods or the Crystal had planned for them, but maybe Gladio was right and it didn’t matter. Maybe, for once, Noctis could decide where his life would go.


End file.
